William James Hewlett (1876 – 1921) was a
British trade unionist and socialist activist.
Born in
Abertillery, Hewlett became a coal miner and joined the
South Wales Miners' Federation. He became interested in syndicalism, and during the Cambrian Combine dispute of 1911, he worked with
Noah Ablett
Noah Ablett (4 October 1883 – 31 October 1935) was a Welsh trade unionist and political theorist who is most noted for contributing to 'The Miners' Next Step', a Syndicalist treatise which Ablett described as 'scientific trade unionism.
Ablett ...
, Will Hay and
Bill Mainwaring who formed the Unofficial Reform Committee. He was asked to provide feedback on the draft of ''
The Miners' Next Step''.
Hewlett next joined the
Socialist Labour Party, and the
South Wales Socialist Society (SWSS) which was aligned with it. He also championed independent working class education, becoming secretary of the Workers' Democratic Education League and then the
Central Labour College League.
Hewlett was a supporter of the
October Revolution, and he believed that British communists should form a single, national, communist party. This led him to join the
Communist Unity Group of the SLP. He also led the reformation of the SWSS as the "South Wales Communist Council", and then participated in the formation of the
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...
, serving on its provisional executive committee. He consistently argued that the new party should not seek to affiliate to the
Labour Party.
Hewlett attended the third congress of the
Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
in 1921, and the subsequent congress at which
Red International of Labour Unions was founded. He went on a visit to coal miners in
Tula
Tula may refer to:
Geography
Antarctica
*Tula Mountains
*Tula Point
India
*Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar
Iran
* Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province
Italy
* Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...
, but died in an accident on an
experimental high-speed railcar during the trip.
Tom Bell argued that the train may have been sabotaged, but there is no evidence of this. Hewlett, and the other victims, lay in state in the Great Hall of Columns, and he was then buried near the
Kremlin Wall.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hewlett, Will
1876 births
1921 deaths
British syndicalists
People from Abertillery
Socialist Labour Party (UK, 1903) members
Communist Party of Great Britain members
Welsh trade unionists